Should I Work From Home?

As I sit in my PJ’s writing this article from home, I wonder; should I work from home or is it worth going to a rented office to work? I know both kinds of freelancer, those who work from a home office and those who work from an external office. They both have their perks and in this article I will discuss the perks of both.

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External Office

The most obvious disadvantage of a working from an external office is the fact that you will have to pay rent for the office space you use, whereas from home you will not have to pay a rent to yourself. Then additional to this there is the cost of travelling which from home is a trip to the garage or attic, as opposed to getting stuck in a traffic jam travelling to an external office.

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Since an external office is rented, you cannot decorate it as you wish. I plaster my walls with things which motivate me and this helps me to stay inspired, but in an external office this would be a little difficult as putting up posters may be alright but there are things which a landlord may not allow.

An external office, however, provides an area to work away from the hubbub of the activities which go on at home. For example when the children come home from school or a neighbour wants to call around to say “hi” and disturb you, you are far away from all of this in an external office.

I’m a Hollywood addict and therefore love watching movies. When I hear that “The Godfather” is on TV I rush to watch it for the 63rd time but in an office, you can’t just go to a T.V. and be distracted. Admittedly there are not many movies on during office hours, but there are other T.V. programs which may distract you at home.

I knew a young freelancer who worked from his bedroom. He was seeing more success as he progressed through his career until one day I noticed a real laziness about him where he was missing deadlines and procrastinating a lot. The problem was his father, who being old school could not understand how it was possible to work from home. It was only when he got an office that his father got off his back and he became more productive.

Home Office

Of course, the disadvantages of working from an external office are the advantages of working from home. There may be other advantages which you can suggest for working from home. Personally I think the greatest advantages are, as I said, cost efficiency, no travel time and the ability to change your workspace.

Final Word

It all boils down to your personal situation. If you and your partner work and you need to get the children from school you may want to consider working from home whereas if you keep getting distracted at home, you may want to invest in an external office. So, should I work from home? You tell me below. Also subscribe to our RSS!

Places To Find Work For All Types of Freelancers

Elance – They have over 30,000 jobs posted. They also cover many different categories, almost any type of freelancer can find work here.

oDesk – With almost any set of skills you have, you should be able to find freelance work here. They have a wide variety of categories. This is a heavily posted website.

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